"It fits," he said, wonder threading through the words.
"Of course it fits," she said, choking out a laugh that was half sob."You measured my ring finger when you thought I wasn't looking, didn't you?That day at the hardware store when you were supposedly comparing pipe fittings."
He grinned up at her, his eyes bright with unshed tears of his own."Maybe."
She cupped the side of his face with her free hand, feeling the warmth of his skin, the roughness of stubble along his jaw.Her thumb brushed the faint scar along his cheekbone, that thin white line that marked the night everything had changed, the night he had put himself between danger and everything she was trying to build.
He leaned into her touch, just slightly, just enough to let her know that it still mattered to him.That she was the one touching that mark, that she was the one he wanted close to the places where he'd been hurt.
"You're sure about this?"she asked softly, the question escaping before she could stop it."About me.About all of it.You know I come with baggage.Entire storage units full of it."
"So do I," he said."We can stack it in the shed with the extra lumber.Brian already has a system for it."
A laugh bubbled out of her, tangled with another tear."Romantic."
"Hey," he said, a smile breaking across his face."You knew who I was when you signed up.Man of bikes, lumber, and spreadsheets, remember?I never claimed to be a poet."
"I remember," she said."I also remember that you're the man who stood in a field where my life fell apart and said we were going to build something better on it.That's the one I said yes to.That's the one I'm saying yes to now."
His expression softened in a way that made her knees feel suddenly unreliable.
"Come here," he said.
He rose to his feet in one fluid motion, still close, still holding her hand like he didn't intend to let go any time soon.Maybe ever.
"You realize," she said, her voice wobbly but warm, "that you proposed to me in a cabin that isn't technically ours.It's a rental.It belongs to Norman House Retreats LLC, of which I am merely a managing member."
"It absolutely is our cabin," he said."We built it from scratch.Every board.Every nail.Every scar and scrape and cut I've gotten over the past six months has largely come from building these cabins.The LLC is just paperwork.This is ours."He paused, a glint in his eye."Also, the light in here is perfect.You look incredible."
"You're ridiculous," she said.
"You love it," he said.
She did.God help her, she did.
She slid her hand up to the back of his neck, feeling the warmth of his skin, the short hair at his nape, and lifted onto her toes.
When he kissed her, it felt like all the pieces of the last year clicked into place at once.The fire.The fear.The nights on his couch when she thought she might never sleep again without hearing crackling walls and smelling smoke.The first board they'd put up together.The first time he'd called it their cabin without even thinking about it.The arguments, the laughter, the quiet moments, and the loud ones.
All of it had led here.To this porch.This room.This man.
He kissed her like he understood that.Like he felt it too.
Behind them, through the window she had agonized over centering, the cabin lights cast a soft glow that turned their shadows long and joined across the floor.From outside, anyone walking the path would see two figures pressed close, silhouetted against the warm light, the shape of them together forming something whole.
Home, she thought.
Not a sign on a post.Not a business plan or a calendar of reservations.Not an old building she had tried to save because it meant something to people who weren't around anymore to appreciate it.
This.This man.This life they were building together.
She broke the kiss long enough to rest her forehead against his, breathing hard and laughing at the same time, the two sensations tangled together in her chest.
"Colby Landon," she said."You're completely out of your mind."
"Accurate," he said, his breath warm against her face."You saying that as my fiancée or as my future business partner in endless paperwork?"
"Both," she said, and the word tasted new and right in her mouth."Fiancée.That's wild.I'm someone's fiancée."
